As record-breaking temperatures put growing pressure on our cities, trees could be one of our most important tools for helping urban areas cope with extreme heat - cooling streets, improving air quality and absorbing and storing carbon.
The UK has committed more than £1.3 billion to urban tree planting since 2020, but research shows that up to half of all trees planted in UK towns and cities fail within ten years and 30% do not survive their first year.
Now, a pioneering new garden in Manchester's Mayfield Park district is exploring whether artificial intelligence could help change that.
The Avanade Intelligent Garden complete with 19 trees, arrived in Manchester city centre this month as part of a 1-acre extension of the much-loved Mayfield Park. Located alongside one of the city centre’s busiest urban streets, the Intelligent Garden has transformed a former traffic island beside Manchester Piccadilly Station, into a new green gateway connecting the station with Mayfield Park.
Image: The Avanade Intelligent Garden - Alister Thorpe
Its arrival marks the start of a real-world trial exploring how technology could help trees survive and thrive in challenging urban environments, while responding to the growing demands of climate change.
Originally created for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 by garden designer Tom Massey and Studio Weave, the Intelligent Garden, has been reimagined for its new home by Studio Egret West, the landscape architects behind Mayfield Park, in collaboration with Tom Massey and Studio Weave, and features 'Tree Talk' technology developed by Avanade.
Through sensors attached to seven of the trees, Mayfield park staff are able to collect real-time data about the conditions the trees are coping with, while an AI system analyses the information to identify early signs of stress, drought or disease. It’s an exciting new approach to urban tree management that gives those responsible for maintaining urban trees a clear understanding of what each tree needs, enabling them to intervene and help trees survive the critical first years.
Avanade’s 'Tree Talk' technology allows two-way communication between park staff and the trees, enabling questions such as “How are you feeling?” or “What do you need?” to help inform horticultural decisions and identify how urban trees can have a more resilient future.
“Trees will play an increasingly important role in helping our cities adapt to a hotter climate, which makes it particularly exciting to be exploring their future here at Mayfield,” says Henrietta Nowne, Mayfield’s Development Director. “Mayfield is about transforming a part of Manchester that was once overlooked and largely inaccessible into a vibrant, biodiverse landscape where people and nature can thrive alongside one another. The Intelligent Garden is a natural fit for that vision, bringing together nature, technology and design to explore how our urban landscapes can respond to the challenges of climate change.
“This kind of green innovation demonstrates what is possible when we think differently about how technology and nature can work together to shape the cities of the future. The Intelligent Garden is not just a standalone installation. It’s part of the district’s continued evolution into a greener, more resilient place that will eventually be home to thousands of homes and offices in the coming years.”
At the 6.5 acre Mayfield Park which opened in 2022 as Manchester city centre’s first park for 100 years, the cooling benefits of its 140 trees have already been felt. During this summer's heatwaves, a thermal survey recorded surface temperatures of 22.5°C in deep shade beneath the park's tree canopy compared with 51.4°C on exposed pavement nearby.
The new Intelligent Garden is designed to help protect this valuable urban infrastructure by identifying potential problems early. Over the coming months, the trees in the garden will be monitored as they establish in their new home with an ambition to understand whether the lessons from the trial could ultimately help inform how trees are monitored and managed at a much larger scale, helping cities give their trees the best possible chance of surviving and thriving as temperatures continue to rise.
Speaking about the relocation Tom Massey said: “So many trees planted in our cities don’t survive, and that’s a real problem we wanted to highlight through the garden. Planting targets may be met, but if trees don’t establish and thrive, the exercise becomes somewhat futile and can end up costing carbon rather than capturing it.
“Moving the Avanade Intelligent Garden to Mayfield has given us the opportunity to take that idea out of the show garden environment and test it in a real urban setting. The site is challenging, with surrounding hard surfaces exacerbating heat, limited soil depths, pollution from busy roads and all the pressures that city trees face. That makes it the perfect place to explore how sensors, monitoring and AI could help us better understand what trees need and give them a greater chance of surviving and thriving.
“Essentially, we’re exploring how technology can work alongside human custodians, providing better information to help us use resources efficiently, deepen our understanding of the trees and respond to their needs over the long term, while also gathering data that could inform future planting.
“It’s exciting to see the garden become part of Mayfield’s wider evolution, bringing together technology, nature and a more biodiverse approach to urban design.”
